Petersfield proud despite Senior Cup defeat

The Sports Desk

Gosport encouraged ahead of Redditch trip

Petersfield Town assistant manager Jamie Steeves praised his side’s efforts after they narrowly missed out on winning the Portsmouth Senior Cup, just days after claiming the Wessex Premier division title.

The Rams were unable to achieve a historic double as they were beaten 4-2 by the Hawks in the final.

Despite going 2-0 down at half-time, Steeves’ men gave a good showing of themselves in the second half.

‘I’m really proud of the lads,’ said Steeves.

‘We had a poor first half but mixed things up a bit and came out fighting.

‘I don’t think the 4-2 scoreline reflected how well we played but I couldn’t have asked for anymore from them.

‘I think it shows that JJ Hooper was the difference.

‘We are disappointed but we gave a good account of ourselves.

‘We’ve got another chance of silverware in a few weeks so we just need to keep our heads up.’

First-half goals from JJ Hooper and Jake Gayle put Petersfield on the back foot.

But the Rams fought back minutes after the break through Andy Todd, before Mike McEnery equalised for the visitors to make for an entertaining final 20 minutes.

Despite the momentum going with Petersfield, the Hawks managed to regain the lead through Liam Kimber.

Gayle then latched onto the end of Hooper’s square ball for his second goal to make sure the Hawks came away with the silverware on their debut in the competition.

The Rams, however, still have opportunities for further trophies and will look to be more successful next time round.

Steeves added: ‘The boys have been tireless all season, they have always been put the effort in.

‘I think that just shows the mentality of the players that this is only our third loss this year, and sixth in two seasons.

‘We aren’t taking anything lightly. We’ve still got three big games, we want to take six points from the remaining league games, then it would be nice to grab another trophy at Wicor Rec.

‘We’ve got a great bunch of lads here and now it’s my job to pick them up ahead of Saturday’s game.’